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tv   The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer  CNN  January 9, 2010 6:00pm-7:00pm EST

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conditions. wow. i'm randi kaye at the cnn center in atlanta. i'll be back with more on the quotes from senate majority leader harry reid where he refers to president obama's skin color and dialect. "the situation room" begins right now. president obama declares the buck stops with me and spells out ways the u.s. could better track and stop terrorists. this hour, his new response to the failed christmas bombing and what it means for your security. also, the real life saga of a spy, a double agent turned suicide bomber or was he a triple agent? we're learning new details, how he earned the trust of cia officers and then turned on them with deadly results. and two veteran democrats call it quits and now their party's clout in the senate may be in jeopardy. james carville and the surprising turns on election 2010. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."
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i am less interested in passing out blame than i am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer. for ultimately the buck stops with me. as president i have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people and when the system fails, it is my responsibility. >> president obama taking responsibility this week for america's closest brush with airline terror in years. he suggested no one will be fired at least for now and he ordered a series of reforms including tougher rules for putting people on the no fly list, and more widespread distribution of intelligence reports. the president also renewing his declaration of war on al qaeda and its growing presence in yemen. cnn international security correspondent paula newton is in yemen for us. we'll go to her in a moment. also here in washington are our homeland security correspondent jeanne meserve and former
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homeland security inspector general clark kent irvin. thanks to all of you for coming in. clark, let me start with you. the president says for now he's not interested in firing people. but you believe people should be fired. >> i do, wolf. it is terrific the president took responsibility and, of course, ultimately he's responsible. that's the politically smart thing to do too. but the president himself can't be fired, certainly. and further, the president himself doesn't run the government. the bureaucracy does. unless heads roll in the bureaucracy, we'll be talking about this in years to come. >> who would you fire? >> it seems there were multiple mistakes and multiple agencies as the president has said. therefore it seems there should be multiple resignations in the nctc. >> the national counterterrorism center. >> that's right. in the central -- >> that's headed by michael leiter. >> it is. i know michael leiter. he's a consummate intelligence profession professional. people in the bureaucracy who did not share the information widely, didn't connect the dots, should answer for it, it seems to me. >> janet napolitano is the
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homeland security secretary. as far as we know, no one has offered a resignation. >> that's right. the president did say, though, yesterday, of course, there are going to be accountability mechanisms within agencies. i'm not sure what he means by that. perhaps he means inspector general investigations. but if we don't have ultimately resignations or firings, it seems to me we'll talk about this again. >> you had a chance to sit down with janet napolitano this week, jeanne. you got a sense of where she approaches all of this and we saw her later in the week at that briefing at the white house. how is she dealing with all the pressure on her right now, because she is sort in of in the bull's eye. a lot of republicans are saying, you know what, she didn't step up to the plate. >> she didn't talk a lot about it except to say i've admitted i didn't perform well those first appearances on sunday morning after the attempted attack when i went out and said the system's work could have been more clear. i think the fact you saw her go out yesterday that the white house sent her in front of the podium is another indication that they have confidence in her and that she has their backing. i will say when you talk to
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people within the department, they say some of the criticism leveled at her is unfair. they say we didn't own the intelligence piece of this. we don't own the visa process. we didn't do the screening in amsterdam. that was the dutch authorities. for people to weigh down so heavily on her and view this as a homeland security failing, they bridle at that. >> what people are attacking her for is that comment she made that the system worked and she later explained she meant the system after the failed -- the famed plot came to light worked, but a lot of people misinterpreted or deliberately interpreted her statement as being stupid. >> that's right. and she said i could have been more clear. the department insists if you look at the entirety of her statements, even on sunday, it should have been clear what she was talking about was what happened after the attack. >> let me bring paula newten in, she's in yemen now working this story. john brennan, the president's adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security, he said this,
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at that briefing at the white house, i'll play the clip, listen to this, paula. >> we had a strategic sense of sort of where they were going, but we didn't know they had progressed to the point of actually launching individuals here. and we have taken that lesson and now we're all on top of it. >> he was referring to al qaeda, the arabian peninsula, this group that had ties apparently with this nigerian who wanted to blow up this plane. should this have been a huge surprise that al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, specifically in yemen, where you are, not only had aspirational goals to try to come over here to the united states and kill americans, but actually had the operational capability of doing so? >> there is no way it should have come as a surprise at all. we have been tracking this in yemen for about a year and a half now. and in the last few months we had seen more government officials come to sana, come to yemen.
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he added, which i was stunned, but they had information that now al qaeda and the arabian peninsula is linked to core al qaeda. what does that tell you, wolf? that tells you they had direct contact, they believe they have evidence, direct contact to the al qaeda cells we're now trying to track down in pakistan. everything here in yemen on the ground has changed. i can tell you it is not going to go off the radar again, not for a very long time. an official on the ground here described the engagement here in yemen as episodic. and that's from three administrations. what is so interesting now is when we start to uncover all the layers, there are so many connections to yemen. they're really even too long to list. every time we try to get to the story a little bit more, you get more and more operatives coming through yemen, coming here to learn, to teach, to hear different preachers, and also we're now wondering in these vast tribal areas, what kind of operational help are they getting and this is what the administration has to start to sink their teeth into. and, you know, i have to say,
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just talking about janet napolitano, i met with her privately, with security officials in britain earlier in the year, but you know what her preoccupation was at the time was h1n1. now i'm not saying that's not an important issue, of course it is. but at the same time, i'm reading intelligence reports that say al qaeda is imploding. and, you know, i asked her about that. but i wonder how much are they really being distracted by other things. president obama said we were at war yesterday. some people around here in yemen want the administration to start acting like that on the ground. >> those are good points you make. and i think it is fair to say, let me bring clark and jeanne back into this conversation as well, this whole yemen connection, yes there is a yemen connection to this nigerian but also a yemen connection in the names doct s -- in the person o cleric awlaki who had a connection to hassan, the major that went on the shooting rampage at ft. hood, texas, and a third connection this other african-american convert to
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islam in little rock who went on a shooting rampage at a recruiting station in little rock, arkansas, who had been to yemen and changed his name while he was there apparently. should this have come as a huge surprise to the administration, to the intelligence community, that there was this yemen connection? >> i completely agree with paula. i was shocked when brennan said that. it is -- it has to be a shock to the american people that this is the first time apparently intelligence community has at least thought of the possibility that al qaeda might in yemen might be focused on the homeland. general jones, the president's national security adviser, said there would be shocking details in the report. perhaps this is one of the things he had in mind when he said that. >> jeanne, you wanted to weigh in too. >> on a couple of things. one, so now they put lite a lot focus on yemen. what about somalia, algeria and other places in asia? and how thin is this going to
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spread the resources? is it a wacable situation where, okay, now we focus attention on yemen as well as afghanistan and pakistan, yet you still have problems elsewhere around the world. >> do you think, paula, you're in yemen now, are they looking for awlaki who has apparently inspired some extremists through the including major nide nadal hassan? >> reporter: we're starting to delve into the family ties of awlaki. he has family, players who are actually in the government here. the tribe that is harboring him in southern yemen is saying, look, anyone touches one hair on his head and they're talking more of a civil war between the tribes against the government. as long as awlaki has that shelter from his tribe, it would be very difficult for yemeni or american officials to do anything to try to capture him,
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to try to question him or do anything with him. you talk to yemeni authorities, they're saying, hey, why didn't the americans tell us about this? he's an american. they had the intelligence about what could have been going on with him, they never pointed this out to us. for that reason, i think awlaki, as long as he stays in the south, he's pretty safe. >> got to leave it there. paula newton in yemen, we'll be touching base with you. clark kent irvin, thank you very much. jeanne meserve, doing excellent reporting for us as she always does. a double agent's body of lies. insight into the suicide bombing of a cia base in afghanistan, the betrayal may run deeper than we know. in iran, thumbing its nose at the west. a new show of defiance over its nuclear program. can the u.s. and israel agree on a response? i'll ask israel's ambassador to the united states. ( clicking )
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recruited by jordanian intelligence. a man employees himself up on a base in afghanistan killing seven cia operator and an intelligence officer related to king abdullah. it has multiple layer and plenty of intrigue and it echoes a recent spy novel turned into a hit movie. david ignacious is the author of a novel "body of lies." thanks for coming in. >> great to be here, wolf. >> give us your initial assessment of what happened at that base in afghanistan. >> you have to say this was a
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masterful operation. >> this double agent. >> this double agent who probably really was a triple agent. this is a man that the jordanian intelligence service, very competent, very close ally of the u.s. worked with for the past several year, had believed was ready to penetrate al qaeda at a very high level, sent him there into the afghanistan/pakistan area. and he comes back to meet his handlers and, you know,' pe app to have been turned once again so a person they thought is reliable is operating against them. he isn't searched. fairly typical to agents to say to their handler, don't you trust me? they wouldn't to be accepted as part of the family. he get in without being searched. to me, a troubling aspect of this is in spy novels that i write, but in real life spy work it typical to go outside of an embassy or a military base and meet your contacts at a safe
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house, some neutral location where you can reduce the number of people, the visibility, and the risk. i believe that you can -- i would argue that the trade craft was poor. for some years in both iraq and afghanistan, to reduce the risk and vulnerability for a cia officer, it has been increasingly typical that they don't leave these military bases or the green zone in baghdad. the agents come in to them. a lot of people have argued that's a bad idea, it is insecure. i think in light of this, there will be some changes in trade craft. really the cia needs trade craft specialized for this environment. this is not the cold war. it is not moscow. it is different. >> he seemed so potentially useful, a medical doctor, from jordan, and the u.s. cia has good relations with jordanian intelligence as you well know. and he seemed to be giving information about the number two guy in al qaeda, ayman al
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zawahiri. was it too enticing? >> i think it is a case of a very clever adversary. we have to realize how smart al qaeda is. they were holding a bauble in front of us so enticing. this is what would make us jump. here is somebody who claims to have information about the location of ayman al zawahiri, the key target we have been going after with bin laden and it was irresistible. as a result, eight people are dead. and, again, if you want something that badly, you make yourself vulnerable and i think we have to be careful about that. the whole country would love to see bin laden and zawahiri brought to justice, but not at the price of making our own people vulnerable. >> it dawned on me, i'm sure on you that ayman al zawahiri is a medical doctor also, just like this double or triple agent. and the fact that an educated person like that could become a suicide bomber what does that say to you? >> it says the same thing to me as the abu mutallab case, many
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cases involve very educated people, people who really are at the elite of their societies, who for whatever reason have become disaffected, dlip deeply disaffected. the place where this man is said to be from is a special center for people like this, people who prospered as the jordanian economy prospered but felt left out and are easy targets for recruiters. this is something we really have to think about because prosperous educated muslims are all around us here in america, in britain. they're people who are our friends, neighbors, fellow citizens. somehow they have to help identify people. as abu mutallab's father did. that's the only way, really that people will -- >> let's not forget that abu mu za saab al zarqawi was from there. thank you for coming in. >> thanks, wolf.
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the world sweats as iran defines what might the obama administration do. what might israel do? i'll speak with the israeli ambassador to the united states. and it is home to men with firearms and fiery anti-american rhetoric. will yemen be the next battleground for the u.s.? i'll speak with republican pete hoekstra and democrat jane harman. hey, coach, seeing you really brings back some great memories. wait a minute, coach, you're the coach. you taught me everything i know. you taught me everything i know about nutrisystem.
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one item piled high on president's agenda now what to do about iran. tehran remains defiant about its nuclear program, thumbing its nose at the world's demands by missing a deadline over its nuclear program. so how should the world respond? i spoke about that and more with the israeli ambassador to the united states, ambassador michael oren. mr. ambassador, thank you very much for coming in. >> pleasure, wolf. >> i notice "the new york times on sunday," this line jumped out at me, i want you to clarify. a senior israeli diplomat in washington said in back channel conversations, quote -- is
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that then the united states will join with the international community with like minded states and in developing, devising and imposing these crippling sanctions on the ir iranian economy. we are on the same page. >> where are you on the same page? >> i don't think there are major differences with us on this. i think we're re-examining how we will proceed to imposing these sanctions and we are closely communicating with and cooperating with the obama administration. >> in recent years, there have been differences as far as the intelligence assessment of the u.s. government and the israeli government as to how close iran is to actually possessing a nuclear bomb. >> i think we're very closely communicating and cooperating on all of the issues. and our assessments are very similar. >> is your intelligence the same as the u.s. acessment? >> our assessments are very similar. >> there is another story in "the new york times" on the front page about the secret tunnels. take a look behind you, you see the picture, ahmadinejad wearing
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the hard hat. he visited a tunnel, not necessarily the tunnel where they're having nuclear facilities, but it would be deep underground. does israel have the capability to destroy iranian nuclear facilities in these deep underground tunnels? >> wolf, we're nowhere near that point now. we're focused now on sanctions. not on destroying tunnels. we're focused on getting these sanctions up and running, and to assessing their impact. >> you really believe these sanctions can change the government of iran? >> we believe that the sanctions can be effective. we are interested in seeing the degree to which the other important factors and actors in the international community will cooperate. i think there is a growing awareness on the part of all international actors, the russians, the chinese, that iran poses a threat, not just to israel and the middle east but to world peace the. the working assumption is if the russians come aboard, the chinese will not want to remain ashore and we're hopeful that the sanctions can prove effective.
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>> we're also seeing demonstrations in tehran, elsewhere in iran. a lot of people out on the street protesting the regime of president ahmadinejad. do you believe that there can be a revolution of sorts inside of iran, regime change, if you will, by the people on the streets? >> i don't get into prophecy about the future of iran, wolf. what is clear now is in the aftermath of the upheaval that began last june it not the same iran. this is not a monolithic unchallenged leadership. what we do believe, for example, is that sanctions will not galvanize the regime and its people will actually widen the gaps between them. to put it graphically if you have a cab driver in tehran who runs out of gas because of sanctions if before in june he would have gotten out of his cab and blamed israel, the west, for running out of gas, today that same cab driver in tehran gets out of his gasless cab and blames his own government for bringing these sanctions down on him. >> so i guess the other part of
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that question is if there is a revolution, they were to take over, would that make a difference as far as iran's nuclear program, as far as iran and israel is concerned? >> i'm sure iran under a different government would have a different relationship with israel. they had a close relationship with israel. for the first two decades of israel's existence, iran was israel's major oil supplier. >> let's talk about airline security. as you know since christmas day, there has been a huge amount of concern here as far as security at u.s. airports for good reason. israel is well known for having very tight security at ben gurian airport, el al, what is the sing the most important piece of advice you would give the u.s. as far as airline security is concerned. >> i think we learn from one another. we're closely investigating the circumstances surrounding the attempted destruction of this plane bound for detroit on christmas. but there is -- israel does present a different model for
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airport and airline security. israel is less concerned for what people are wearing or the way they're dressed and what they're carrying. rather we're more concerned with the way they behave. and it is not -- it has been widely misrepresented that we racially profile. we don't. i've been -- i go through that airport every other week and very often it happens that someone, an arab israeli in flowing robes or a woman in a complete hidjab goes through as easily as i do but i should know i as the ambassador of israel to the united states, i get stopped every single time and i get checked by people, many of them young enough to be my own kid who are asking me questions and looking for inconsistency in my answers, looking not at what i'm wearing, not looking at my ethnicity. they're looking at how i behave and how i react to certain type of questions. that's a different model and we're willing to share that model with the united states and other countries in the world, facing this common problem of airborne terror. >> the israeli ambassador to the united states, michael oren. with links to the airline
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bombing plot, is yemen the next front in the war against terror? i'll ask two members of congress who are deeply involved in intelligence, republican pete hoekstra and democrat jane harman. and should democrats be nervous about 2010? i'll speak with democratic strategist james carville and republican national committee chairman michael steele.
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is the united states looking at a new front in the war against terrorism? after the failed airliner bombing plot, there are new concerns about al qaeda finding a new haven and a base of operations in yemen. joining us now from los angeles, democratic congresswoman jane harman of the homeland security committee. and joining us from grand rapids in michigan, republican congressman pete hoekstra of the intelligence committee. he's just back from yemen. thanks to both of you for coming in. what is the most important thing, congressman hoekstra, you learned in yemen? >> i think the most important thing is exactly what the president has identified. yemen is a new front in this threat from al qaeda. the al qaeda on the arabian peninsula is a real threat. and i think the other thing that
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we learned is that the detainees that were released from gitmo are kind of the core group of the al qaeda on the arabian peninsula and they along with awlaki, the american borne radical iman, have kind of made as a priority for al qaeda and arabian peninsula attacking the united states of america. >> is it time, congresswoman harman, for the u.s. to send troops into yemen as the u.s. has done in afghanistan, for example? >> no. i don't think so. but we have ratcheted up our cooperative arrangement with a very weak yemeni government. i tried to go to yemen also in november. but because my itinerary changed at the last minute, they did not welcome the visit of me and several other members of congress. i'm glad that peter got to see it. peter and i have traveled to all the garden spots like the tribal areas of pakistan and syria and
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i think he was on the north korea trip and libya over the year years. it is impressive to see what our intelligence community and the cia does abroad. i want to extend my condolences to the families of the seven cia agents who were blown up by a suicide bomber in east afghanistan. but let me say about yemen, i agree that -- as i put it, yemen is the new fatah, the new -- another new dangerous ungoverned area for al qaeda and other terror groups. that does not mean all our attention has to be focused there, because al qaeda is a global threat. it is a different threat from 9/11. it is not a top-down organization anymore. we have decapitated a lot of its top leadership. but it is equally dangerous. and it is trying to recruit americans as well. so yes, our attention has to be paid to al qaeda and yemen. >> fatah, the area in pakistan,
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the territory where al qaeda, they have established a significant base. have you been briefed by the obama administration by what is going on since that failed airliner attack on christmas day? >> we had a couple of briefings since that time. i had one in washington, d.c. and then obviously, of course, when i was in yemen. i will tell you, wolf, that i don't believe that the administration has been as open with congress in briefing us either on what happened in detroit, but more importantly they haven't been as open with us as what i would like on ft. hood. we really is not had any briefings on ft. hood since that tragic occurrence almost two months ago and that also had ties to yemen. it has ties to awlaki. and i think that we need to be able to get the full picture. i think as you listen to the dialogue between jane and i, i think the hopeful thing for america is people can see that even though on individuals we -- individual policies we may have differences of agreement, but on
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foreign policy we find ways to work together and to get things done and to do it in a nonpartisan way, because in fighting al qaeda in this new threat in yemen, we need to do this together. republicans and democrats, and working with the white house. >> jane harman, we got a picture in of the president meeting with his counterterrorism adviser. there you see john brennan, 25 years in the cia, a career professional. do you agree with congressman hoekstra that the administration is not briefing you adequately? >> no, i don't. in fact i'm surprised to hear peter say that. i've been in classified briefings since ft. hood by the fbi and the national counterterrorism center and other groups. and i remember a bipartisan attendance at those briefings. i'm not sure whether peter was there. i haven't been in washington since the christmas bomb plot so i haven't had the classified briefing, but i sure have had conversations with key administration officials by
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phone and i don't think -- i know i'm not the only person and i know it is not democrats only who have been briefed. i'm aware that susan collins had briefings since that. i don't think so. i also want to commend the president for ratcheting up actions against al qaeda on his watch in the last year. and i think that we have foiled a lot of important plots. obviously this one we didn't foil. it is -- kudos to the passengers on that plane for stopping the plot. but engaged citizenry is always going to be part of our arsenal. and i'm glad they were aware of what was happening. but, for example, the zazi plot in colorado and new york was foiled. the headily plot in illinois was foiled. i just heard on your broadcast, wolf, that the five folks from virginia who were perhaps planning to carry out attacks in pakistan on pakistan as part of a taliban plot have been arrested there and i'm sure we're cooperating there.
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we had successes. peter knows this. and i want to commend our intelligence community for trying to get it right. >> congressman, we don't have a lot of time, but i got to ask you this question because you know you're being slammed by a lot of democrats even others, for using this issue, the obama administration's record for fund-raising. looking back on that letter you sent out seeking funds, was that a mistake, you think, so quickly after this incident? >> well it kind of interesting, wolf. you're right they're slamming me they don't like where i've taken them on policy. if you go to the president's own campaign website today, you'll see that on one side it is the president talking about national security, right next to it says donate now. what is good for goose is good for the gander. if they think i did something wrong, then the president is doing the same thing. i think it is -- let's talk about the policy here. there are major policy differences that i think we can
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work through together in a bipartisan way. they need -- we need to focus on the policy. we can do it and the american people expect us to work through this. >> wolf, can i comment on that? >> yes. >> wolf? well, peter, let me say to you, this is your friend jane talking to you. we have worked on a bipartisan basis for years. i didn't know anything about this letter until i heard about it on a news broadcast that we were both on yesterday. i have it in front of me, though. you talk about the brazen and naive pledge to close guantanamo bay. i want to tell you, as someone you worked with, that i think if we really want to do counterterrorism right, we have to eliminate one of al qaeda's top recruiting tools and that's guantanamo bay. i think we need to close it as the president has promised, and i think we carefully need to evaluate where all the detainees go. i'm against sending them back to yemen right now, although the -- >> gitmo is one of those policy areas where you and i disagree. i don't believe that bringing these people to the united
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states is going to lessen the recruiting tool by changing the zip code from guantanamo, cuba, to either michigan or to illinois. and if you go to the al qaeda websites, if you go to awlaki's website, he doesn't talk about gitmo, he talks about other things he's using to recruit radical jihadists. >> well, gitmo has been used worldwide as you know as a recruiting tool for those who would harm us. and it doesn't have a zip code. it is outside the reach of u.s. law and we never had a careful, legal framework around how to detain and interrogate people. now i hope we will get one. and i'm not talking about everyone coming to the u.s. but i'm only -- i'm saying anyone who goes to yemen has to be detained and kept in custody which the six people sent by the -- this administration have been. so i think it is appropriate to consider moving all the activities at gitmo under the rule of law. i think that that projects our values and i think -- >> congresswoman, you don't --
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you don't want to send some of the detainees who are yemenis back to yemen, do you? >> not now. i read that john brennan wants to reserve the right to do it at some point. i agree with that. but i want to note that the six yemeni detainees sent during the obama administration are in custody, in yemen, under careful agreement that we have struck and they are not on the loose and they are not organizing terror attacks. >> we're out of time. congressman hoekstra, you think it was a blunder by the administration to send some of the yemeni detainees to either saudi arabia or to yemen because some of them have become leaders of al qaeda in yemen? >> i think it is an ill advised strategy for the bush administration to have sent them back to saudi and yemen. i think sending the six back a couple of weeks ago was also a mistake. jane said it in the beginning. this is a weak central government. they have no authority to detain these people in the long run. some of these may have been related to some of the leadership in al qaeda own the
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arabian peninsula. my expectation is they will find their way to the battlefield. the president should release the studies, the detailed studies that have been completed by the military on the residdivism rate as to how many people we have released under the bush administration and the obama administration have found their way back on the battlefield. i think we would all find those numbers to be of great concern. >> and there are 198 detainees remaining at the guantanamo bay detention center. more than 90 of them are from yemen. 21 yemenis have been released from guantanamo. 14 of them during the bush administration. and 7 during the obama administration. in all, the bush administration transferred 532 gitmo detainees, 42 of them have been moved out during the obama administration. two senate democrats announce this week they were calling it quits. and now their party is more afraid than ever about losing a hard-won advantage over republicans.
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i'll ask james carville if he's rethinking his prediction that democrats could hold power for another 40 years. host: does charlie daniels play a mean fiddle? ♪ fiddle music charlie:hat's how you do it son. vo: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. we decide to turn in early. we just know. announcer: finding the moment that's right for you both can take some time. that's why cialis gives men with erectile dysfunction options: 36-hour cialis or cialis for daily use. cialis for daily use is a clinically proven low-dose tablet you take every day, so you can be ready anytime the moment is right. tell your doctor about your medical condition and all medications and ask if you're healthy enough for sexual activity. don't take cialis if you take nitrates for
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democratic heavyweight senator chris dodd of connecticut announced this week that he's retiring. he's not the first. should other democrats be feeling a little bit nervous right now? weigh in on that, cnn political contributor and democratic strategist james carville. when you heard that chris dodd was announcing his retirement, what did you think, james? >> well, i mean, he really -- he wanted to run, he knew he was in a tough race. he had been in the senate forever. i was surprised but not shocked. >> is this good for the democrats or bad for the democrats in terms of holding on to a democratic seat in connecticut? >> to be honest with you, i think most connecticut democrats would say general blumenthal, in
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terms of keeping that seat, it is hard to see how this is, quote, bad for the democrats, unquote. >> you assume he's going to be the democratic nominee and will coast to a win? >> well, i mean, i assume. i think if he runs, which appears to be likely, not much chance that he'll be challenged. supposedly from everything i read, and i'm told by, pretty connected to some connecticut democrats -- >> he won't be challenged on the democratic side but challenged by republicans. >> right. but he would be the strongest democrat that we could run according to my friends in connecticut from what they tell me. but, look, can i say he won't get challenged by a democrat? no. >> i guess it is a tough question. do you think that democrats in connecticut and elsewhere were encouraging senator dodd to step down? >> i don't know that. and i kind of doubt it. senator dodd is a very popular person. people -- he's very well liked. that's something people need to understand. i think that he was in angst.
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i think he was considering he probably talked to any number of people about whether he should run or not. i think this is a decision that he arrived at on his own. and i have not spoken to him about it. certainly do like him. i don't know anybody -- i never heard of anybody that really dislikes senator dodd. he was in a tough race. and he probably, you know, thought the better of going through with it. >> what about byron dorgan, the democratic senator from north dakota? he announces he's retiring, which presumably set the stage for a popular republican governor stepping in. >> i was shocked by that. i was much more shocked by that, by senator dorgan's decision than i was by senator dodd's decision. i was kind of surprised by senator dodd's decision. i was shocked by senator dorgan's. and, again, i know him not well, but i know senator dorgan casually. i think most people were shocked
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by that. >> your recent book, the headline was 40 more years, how the democrats will rule the next generation, were you being a little bit too optimistic? >> i didn't say an actual election now, did i? i don't think so. in the book i say, look, we're not going to win every election. we're certainly not going to win three congressional elections in a row. big win in '06, big win in '08. it is obvious to anyone there was going to be some pullback. but it depends on how many seats we lose. i actually think that if we run this right, we can cut our losses to fairly reasonably. the economy is starting to get better. the republicans have been known everything. and by the way, the republican party is held in no higher esteem today than it was a year ago. their long-term problems are with them, just as it was when i wrote that book. am i bearish in the short-term, the next election, sure. i think we'll lose some seats. i don't think it will necessarily be a wipeout. but i agree with everything i
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said in the book that i'm very bullish on the long-term prospects. >> so our democrats -- are democrats really on shaky ground as the 2010 election approachs? i'll speak about that and more with the republican party chairman michael steele. ( laughs, click ) when you hear a click, ( clicking ) you know it's closed and secure. that's why hefty food bags click closed. hefty! hefty! hefty! so you know you've helped lock in freshness and lock out air... to help prevent freezer burn. be sure it's secure with hefty food bags. just one click and you know it's closed. hefty! hefty! hefty! ( click, click, click )
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republicans certainly believe they should be in power, but does the party think it will return to power? right now the party chairman michael steele is taking some heat for casting doubts on the republican chances of winning the midterm election in the house of representatives. steele is promoting his new book "right now: eye 12-step program for defeating the obama agenda." let's talk politics for a few moment and talk about your new book. you said in an interview last night, you didn't think the republicans could retake the house of representatives this year. explain why. >> well, and, you know, if you go and listen to the rest of what i said, and, look, you know, i'm not a pundit here, i don't try to make those types of forecasts. and certainly i know some of my friends in washington on the hill were a little bit put out by what i said. what i'm saying the question was will you take back the house?
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i don't know, wolf. as i said to sean. we're still putting those building blocks in places. we have races now that are just beginning to take shape. we announced today, you saw senator dorgan decide to step down to retire. all of a sudden that race takes on a new dynamic for us with respect to the senate. there will be other retirements. we had at christmas time, a democratic congressman switched parties and became a republican. i look at this and i'm in the going to speak definitively of what we will do or wasn't do. what i can tell you is what we're going to be about the business of doing, that is putting in place good candidates to run and winning as if we will take the house in the fall. >> the national republican congressional committee in charge of getting republicans elected to congress, they came out with a statement today, ken spain, the spokesman, the nrcc's goal has always been to recapture the majority of 2010, independent political analysts and even liberal columnists stated republicans have a very real shot at taking back the majority in 2010. make no mistake about it, we are playing to win.
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that's been interpreted as a slap at you. >> it is not. it is not. i agree with the statement. it wasn't a slap at me. we're trying to create this diversion and distraction, there is distraction on the republican side. what i agree with the nrcc and others around the country who are looking at these races that we're going to be in play, we're going to fight hard to win the seats and we're going to be competitive all the way to the end. no one is right now declaratively stating that we will win the house back in this november. and if they are saying that, i would like to see the crystal ball they're looking through because there is still a lot of politics to unfold here, a lot of races to be settled on both sides of the political tracks. what i want to be is deliberate and determined to put the money out there to make every effort to win in agreement with the nrcc's statement today. >> here is a line that jumped out from your new book "right
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now" on page 14. as chairman of the republican national committee, let me say it as clearly and succinctly as i can, we screwed up. all right, explain to our viewers here in the united states and around the world how you, the republicans, screwed. >> wh>> when you look at the history, republicans controlled both houses of congress for 40 year, we get it in '94 and lose it in 12, the question you to ask yourself is what happened, what occurred that people in 94 would entrust us and then take that leadership away 12 years later and be in the mess we see ourselves in other races across the country. the reality is when you step away from principles, when you step away from values that you outlined clearly in 1994, and begin to spend money, and increase the role and influence of government, you know, the t.a.r.p. bill was a real prb obm
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for a lot of conservatives on both sides, not just among republicans, but those who identify as independents and even some democrats in the last year, those types of principle moves away from principle are problematic. so now we have a chance, i think, with the kind of road map that as a national chairman we tried to lay out and saw affected in new jersey and virginia this past fall in special elections that we have won throughout the past year, to put a new footprint in place. and move the party and the country in a discretirection awm this sense of government entitlement and intrusion into decisions that families and businesses are making every day. >> you got a huge challenge ahead of you. michael steele is the chairman of the republican party. his book is entitled "right now: a 12-step program for defeating the obama agenda." michael steele, thank you very much for coming in. >> all right, buddy. >> good luck with the book. >> thank you. a look at winter wonderlands around the world. hot shots coming up next. your identity, mes tog
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here is a look at some of this week's hot shots from our friends at the associated press. in indianapolis, a woman walked along a snowy trail n northeast china, visitors admired two ice palaces at a winter festival. in england, a fishing boat sat stranded on a snow covered beach. in india, a girl performed with a rabbit outside a buddhist temple. hot shots, pictures worth a thousand words. i'm wolf